Superdimensional Fortess Macross: Dogs of War
by W. J. Sickler
Summary: Ride along and experience the harrowing visions of war of this valkyrie pilot as he remebers how the war started and be there as he sees how it ends. . .


Disclaimer: All that is related to the world of Robotech/SuperDimensional Fortress Macross belongs to it's rightful creator. All uses herewithin are merely for the entertainment of fanfiction.  
  
It's hot. It may still be winter outside with a chill wind and overcast sky but it's still hot. The canopy is cramped and sitting up in battroid position was wearing on it's pilot who hunches over slightly over his controls, allowing his mecha to slouch a little. As he sits here, lax and tired, he thinks to himself that it's got to be well below 30, maybe in the 20's outside but inside this overheated mecha it feels like a hot and humid summer afternoon somewhere in the south. The lens on his helmet fogged up with condensation from the sweat streaming and steaming down his face.  
"When will this all end," he asked himself, aloud to keep himself company.  
He eyed over his monitors to check his gauges. His ammo count showed that his GU-11 has only a few rounds left the he would have to rely on less powerful defenses, say the valkyrie's laser cannons on the mecha's "head." To makes things worse, it would take him some time to allow his mecha to cool down before he could make it back to the Macross. And as for communications, the last shot he took from one of those damned pods knocked out his com line, all he reads now is static. Static which sizzles and pops like a strip of bacon under the heat of the canopy.  
"Dammit, where everybody," he cursed with mixed feelings; the first anger that he's been separated by his squad, and second concern that his squad is somewhere out of his sight, and thanks to his dead com line, away from earshot as well.  
Showing more concern he says to himself, "Most of these new pilots are just kids who finished basic not so long ago. This is their first combat and the oldest among them has got to be nineteen. Do they think being a valkyrie pilot is that glorious?"  
Then again, when this pilot signed up for UN Spacey's services he was only eighteen, fresh from high school still. He and his buddy had joined to be one of the few pilots who could operate a valkyrie. And then July fourth came around on Macross island somewhere in the South Pacific. On that day, this fresh new cadet flew his first combat mission.  
He remembers fondly that day--  
  
Dave Monroe snapped to attention along with his friend Luke as they and all of Vermilion squad was called to address the civilians in attendance at today's air show on Macross island. But the air show was only the beginning because later this afternoon the SDF Macross will take its maiden flight out into space where it will attempt to find extraterrestrial life and make contact with them. The last thing on everybody's mind was violent and abrupt war which takes place just before the SDF Macross lifts off.  
Out of nowhere, just after the christening of the great ship did the air become suddenly darkened as a landing fleet of alien military drop around the island. Then the air raid began as alien fighters closed in around Tin Can Alley shooting ships in the bay and fighters on the airstrip. Soldier and civilian took hits from the fury above. It was a nightmare and definitely sets up a mile stone in history.  
Dave remembered standing dumbfounded as he witnessed the massacre. Macross city took such a massive blow so quickly. It was literally a blitzkrieg, a lightning war. Fear crept around him, clutching his heart as he grabbed for it with a white knuckled hand.  
Despite the sound of the war the air sirens sounded from everywhere and all pilots knew that they had to report to their valkyries just as gunners ran for their batteries and medics ran for the wounded.  
Dave cried out with a roar as he and the rest of Vermilion squad ran to their fighters. Air traffic revealed clear air space for the valkyries to take off for. With such a sudden attack, many of these fighters got a quick once over without proper techs' inspections for weapons or fuel. Many fighters had their weapons systems on-line while others were still waiting to come up, these that were shut off were non-battle ready ships used in the airshow earlier.  
Dave punched the thrust on his fighter and rocketed up into a dense smoke filled sky. He called in for his wingman and Luke responded. All wings began to check in and tested their com links to see how well they come in to one another. Once everything checked out their wing commander came on over the air.  
"All wings stay with your wingman, watch for everything and the best of luck to all of us our we'll see each other in hell!" The wing commander's voice helped take some of the edge off this first combat flight to many of the recruits.  
Once the fighters breached the smoke layer and lower clouds they were greeted with several wings of enemy fighters. Shots fired like angry rain from both sides. Many of earth's fighters went down and their screams were cut short by the grim sizzle of static. Only a few opposing fighters go down so easy, their pilots are much more skilled in air combat than many of these cadets.  
Dave and Luke managed to keep each other alive through this fight. They received orders from the SDF Macross to return to "it's" hangars. Power has finally returned to the great ship and it would soon take off away from the surface and attack the orbiting fleet. Ground units were left behind in non-transformable mechas and they would continue their fight here on the planet with the rest of earth's military at their disposal.  
And that gruesome beginning on Macross island became the chrysalis which would make boys men that day as they flew into combat and or death. But as the great ship break out of the atmosphere, its systems jammed up and the spacefold drive was activated, sending the SDF Macross clear across the other end of Earth's solar system, just outside of Pluto's orbit.  
It took forever to return from Pluto back home, nearly four years, and the whole time the alien race, now known as the Zentraedi, continued its assault on the Macross. The fight, the whole war, was bloody and for no good reason. This whole war started out from confusion, the Zentraedi believed the humans to be the original occupants of the SDF Macross. Years ago the Macross fell to earth, only it was destroyed from the impact so earth's scientists got together to reconstruct the space vessel. Before the air show took place, the main cannons malfunctioned and fired out into space where the waiting Zentraedi fleet was waiting. They believed that the original crew of the Macross had survived and fired upon them. One mistake chainreacted a whole series of mistakes. But then the war slowed to a halt as both sides talked to one another about why this war began. Both sides decided to make a truce and end this senseless killing. However there were a few rogue Zentraedi who still harbor a grudge against the crew of the Macross.  
That brings us back to now, Christmas, tonight--  
  
Dave sat there in his valkyrie's canopy tonight and felt the strain of fighting such a gruesome war for so long. He has seen plenty a good fighter go down in history for their acts of bravery to the service of the UN Spacey. But more importantly, he thought, is when will this fighting last and will he even live that long. He looked at his monitors one more time and felt as if his luck might have run out.  
"All right, all we gotta do now is just run the lines," Dave began to say to himself, "we've done this several times over, just that whenever we do this here on earth, many people wind up dead." Dave has not given into the notion that the Zentraedi are now considered allies, after all it's Zentraedi that they're still fighting, rogue or not.  
Out of desperation Dave tried the com link once more. No sooner does he switch a channel open then he's blasted with angry static.  
"Does anybody read me, this is Lieutenant Monroe of Vermilion squad, over."  
The only return was static. Loud, sizzling static.  
"Dammit," Dave hissed to himself. He tensed up and his valkyrie took on a similar stance against this ruined building.  
"I have to get back to the Macross. I need to get fitted for more ammo and repairs," Dave told himself. He repeated this to himself in his mind, playing back the seriousness of this situation. He was psyching himself up.  
Dave squinted his eyes tight and gave out a roar as he punched his valkyrie to life. It lurched forward and it took a quick look around to see if any rogues were nearby. Things were quiet and he didn't like it. Most of the fight had moved off to the distance, not many fought around here. As soon as his scan came back that he was in the clear Dave leaped his battroid into the air where he blasted his engines and converted his mecha into fighter form. The valkyrie tore into the sky and banked hard to return to the Macross.  
Not only did his sensors show anything, he noted with a quick glance around looked to confirm that. The city below him lay in waste. Many fires have died down to smaller hotspots but the streets are just littered with debris and down fighters, earth and Zentraedi. Luckily earth was better prepared for this fight and evacuated many cities into underground bases well away from the war on the surface. But even though Dave knows that there's nobody trapped down in the streets below him he still gets this haunted feeling creep over him as he looks into the ruined roads and see civilian vehicles overturned left and right among wreckage of fighters and buildings.  
Dave flew his fighter across the city and made his way to Macross Park where the SDF Macross lay waist deep, in battroid form, in the bay. He also noticed that a lot of activity is going on there. He sees sets of fighters from the UN Spacey and the Zentraedi allies, as well as the rogue Zentraedi. Explosions burst out left and right and it looks like that the Macross is taking quite a hit from the few enemy fighters that are left.  
"Damn, I need to go replenish my arms at the Macross and I see that it's being attacked," Dave cursed harshly. "How can I defend it with only so many shells left in my gun pod?"  
Coming up alongside of Dave another valkyrie flies by wearing the markings of a Vermilion squad fighter. Dave saw Luke's detail on the tail wings and then he felt reassured that the two of them are most likely heading into their final combat mission.  
The com link blared out static but through a broken transmission Dave could put together his friend's words, "Dave, glad to see that you're all right. It looks like we both decided to go home."  
"Yeah," Dave started, "too bad we're going to defend it so poorly, how's your weapons' count?"  
"I'm nearly out of rounds in my gun pod, I still have a few rockets left, I've taken a few shots though; starboard thrusters were hit hard so I'm having to compensate."  
The two wingmen continued their path back to the great ship and soon more and more friendlies began to show up.  
"This must be the finally people, all of those bastards are closing in on the Macross, they're no longer attacking the city. There's only a handful left so let's close in and get them away from the Macross," the wing commander exclaimed.  
The friendly wings closed into a formation and raced home.  
Up ahead one of the rogues raced by and sped across Memory Lane, which runs from the city up to the Macross. Most of this row has been badly destroyed with small fires burning down some of the storefronts and the street has been laid to rubble.  
Immediately Luke went for the enemy fighter. Dave swooped his valkyrie hard into the dive to the streets below. Both men tore down the streets after the rogue Zentraedi who darted very close to the rooftops. Both Dave and Luke compensated for the low altitude pursuit and changed their valkyries into gerwalk mode. The three fighters raced along the rooftops at an incredible rate. Should any of them make a wrong move they'd hit into a building and that would be fatal.  
The rogue Zentraedi banked hard just before a building and tore down a sidestreet. The hard was to sharp and too soon so Dave pulled back on his controls and climbed up the face of that same building and gained altitude from the warzone below.  
"Luke, check in, are you still back there?"  
Luke's voice returned over Dave's badly damaged com line, "Yeah, I'm still in pursuit, he almost lost me at that sharp bank but I just cleared it. This bastard's mine."  
"Luke," Dave started, "wait up for me, he could be luring you in for a trap."  
"You'd better get back down here then and help me." Luke switched off his com line and pushed into the pursuit.  
Dave planed out on his climb and rolled back into another dive into the ruined streets. He kept a visual on his friend's pursuit with the rogue and he brought his gerwalk down into formation off of Luke's flank.  
"Dave," Luke said over the com line, "o you see where we're headed?"  
Dave glanced up ahead and saw it, "Yeah, we're going towards the Macross. They must be getting desperate."  
"What do you mean," Luke questioned.  
"There are only a few rogues left and they're all rallying to the Macross, I don't think that they're expecting to make it but they want to win the war," Dave said.  
"Are you talking about kamikazes?"  
"I'm willing to bet on it," Dave said.  
The two friends chased the rogue fighter towards the Macross.  
"I'm almost lined up with a shot," Luke said.  
"Watch for it," Dave reassured.  
Luke lined up his sight and drew a bead towards the enemy fighter but the rogue climbed hard just meters from one of the Macross's "arms." Luke cursed to himself and drove into the pursuit at full thrust and scaled the SDF Macross himself and continued to pursue this enemy. The damned enemy pilot pilots well and is so evasive. This must be one of their aces. But the enemy has decided to run from Luke and Dave instead of engage them in combat.  
"Hold still you bastard," Luke exclaimed as he struggled to find his aim.  
Dave converted his valkyrie into fighter mode once more to take up more of an aggressive approach. The fight has swarmed all around the Macross. Gunners fire desperately at the enemy but their are many friendlies up in the sky to make any aggressive shot. Many battroids engages Zentraedi scouts wearing combat armor.  
Dave watched as Luke followed the rogue into the fray above. Many fighters from both sides wove in and out in this awesome dog fight. Many pilots took grievous hits and their aircrafts can been seen conflagurating into balls of fire in mid air.  
Dave stayed glued to his wingman's flank and looked out for him. He kept his focus on what ever was in front of him and Luke but that was when he neglected to spot out another enemy fighter which darts out just before Dave. The two narrowly missed colliding with one another. Dave faltered and rolled his fighter back and when he recovered from the maneuver he say his bogie tearing away just aft of the Macross.  
Dave engaged his target and chased after him, roaring the whole way. They two raced along the decking of the Macross's carrier and tore away back into the city.  
The rogue faked left and barrel rolled hard bellow a bridge. Dave pursued by dropping into gerwalk and dropping his altitude fast and then skating under the bridge and hop back into the air in fighter mode.  
As the rogue climbed up into the smoke Dave tried to take his aim. As soon as the enemy crossed by the crosshairs on his weapons screen, he fired a volley into the ever darkening smoke above.  
Dave flew through the blackness and rose above the smoke and low hanging clouds. He thought that maybe he had lost his target but then he tore into a hard barrel roll as the rogue showed up just before him and launched a rocket into his direction.  
Dave pressed into his sharp climb and tried to position himself to get behind his target and shadow him until a clear shot becomes available.  
Both fighters banked softly and changed their path. The two were flying back towards the harbor.  
"Oh no you don't you son of a bitch," Dave growled as he speed up on his target. If he could just lock up he could fire a volley into the enemy. He watched his crosshairs anxiously. He wanted to fired so badly for what seems like an eternity but it may have only been only five seconds or so.  
The two returned to the dog fight. Many rogues climbed the Macross up to the bridge at it's "head."  
The valkyries and allied Zentraedi pursued against the enemy fighters. Should the bridge be wiped out than many good men and women will meet their makers.  
Dave's target led him past the "torso" and around the main cannons. At the second cannon both fighters wove just out of the way of it at the last moment and then the two dove sharp towards the bay bellow.  
"Take a bow you son of a bitch, I got you," Dave spat out as he squeezes his trigger and fired the last rounds of his GU-11 gunpod into the enemy. His shots sparked off of the enemy's casing but soon round pierced into the aircraft and finally it hit home and caused the fighter to explode into a ball of flaming wreckage.  
Dave pulled back on his controls hard and planed out his fighter. He then banked upwards to assist the rest of the allies against the last of the rogues.  
"Luke, talk to me, where are you," Dave called out over his broken com line. Sizzling static sounded over the line. "I hope he got my message."  
Something came over his com line just moments later. He strained his ears to hear the message. It was Luke but the transmission was badly broken up.  
"Luke, what are your bearings," Dave called over his com line, "over."  
Nothing.  
Dave began to fly a bit more cautiously, keeping up his defenses. As he looked around he saw a valkyrie off ahead following an enemy fighter. Both fighters took some hits as smoked trailed from shots across their aircraft.  
Dave raced in and noticed that it was Luke. More static came over the com line. It had to be Luke but the static was too bad to hear anything.  
"Luke, I'm with you buddy," Dave shot over his com line and fell into position off of Luke's flank.  
"Take the shot, take the shot," Dave kept exclaiming over the line.  
Luke followed the enemy who led him up and towards the bridge. There was a lot of air traffic near the bridge and lots of tiny explosions flared up all around. A few big ones went of and another fighter would go down as flaming wreckage.  
"Luke, give me something, let me know you can hear me, man," Dave said over the line.  
Night was falling in and the smoke layers up here were very dense. Visuals were horrible and Dave resorted to his monitors.  
"Dave," Luke's voice rang out over the com line.  
"Yeah, Luke, buddy, what's up," Dave asked over the line.  
No response.  
Dave waited for a bit. Luke's probably busy with a maneuver or he's aiming up his shot.  
"Dave," Luke started but then everything vanished with the angry sound of static.  
"Luke," Dave said.  
"Luke, Luke! Dammit, Luke, talk to me buddy!"  
From behind a dense cloud of smoke a flaming wreck of a valkyrie fell down to the earth below.  
"Luke!"  
Dave chased after the falling fighter. It's frame began to show where panels once were. It had a trail of thick black smoke.  
"Luke, bail out of there," Dave screamed out over his line.  
He tried to speak again but a deafening roar erupted from up above. A bright flash went of and the sky began to rain angry flaming debris.  
Dave began taking some hits from the debris so he tore off his pursuit from his friend and he brought his fighter down towards Memory Lane. He converted into gerwalk form and brought it to a halt on the razed street. He looked towards the Macross and watched in silent horror at the sight he saw. The Macross stood headless in the harbor. An inferno blazes from where the bridge once stood. A large black cloud of smoke filled the sky above.  
"Luke," Dave said to himself.  
  
Epilogue--  
Dave and and every other brave soldier in the UN Spacey was in attendance at this ceremony today in Macross Memorial Park. Today the services are in dedication to all the brave souls that had died over this war. Not only were humans honored today but also the equally brave Zentraedi. Many of the allied Zentraeid have adapted to life as "micronians" by having their form shrunk down to man sized. They donned smaller versions of their uniforms during the service. In memory of the fallen men and women of the war, a Memorial Wall has been displayed in Macross right before the great ship which has been refitted for its dedication to the war.  
After the services, Dave and his wife and daughter strolled over to the Wall. Dave was let alone to honor his best friend. He looked up friend's name on the Wall and he paid silent respect to a childhood friend and fellow soldier. Luke will be missed.  
Luke bent down to the base of the Wall and left a pack of smokes for Luke.  
  
The End  
  



End file.
